By Abdul Alim Jafri, IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, 09 March 2015: As security forces in Nagaland and Assam have been placed on high alert after a mob lynched a rape accused in Nagaland’s Dimapur earlier this week, local people appealed for peace and calm in the area. At least 27 persons have been arrested by Nagaland Police in connection with the lynching. Curfew has been lifted in Dimapur but schools remained closed on Monday.
Internet and SMS services are also blocked across the state as a precautionary measure.
Syed Farid Khan (35), an alleged rape accused, was lynched by a mob on Thursday. The 2000-strong mob had broken into the Central prison in Dimapur, where he was in judicial custody on rape charges. The violent mob paraded him naked through the town, beat him to death and hung his body from a clock tower.
Naga civil society groups have condemned the lynching. They also attacked both the Centre and state governments, alleging that they were apathetic to their growing concerns over illegal migrants in the region.
Pfuneo, a social activist in Dimapur, has expressed grief over the brutal killing of Khan.
Speaking to IndiaTomorrow.net over phone he said that due to such violence, even the innocent people were suffering and lakhs of property damaged.
He appealed to the people not to get involved in any kind of violence.
“The people of Nagaland shouldn’t have broken the rules and regulations and believed in the law,” he said.
With shops and business establishments shut down, he hope that everything be brought under control and allow people to carry on with their normal life.
Nagaland chief minister T R Zeliang was quoted by television channels, as saying that he has ordered a high-level inquiry into the incident. The state government has also suspended the collector and the police chief of Dimapur district.
However the incident brought to the light the ineffective law and order procedure while dealing with cases of rape and murder.
The Central government has failed to maintain law and order seriously, which is why people take law in their hands in our country, David, a student of the University of Delhi, who hails from Nagaland, told IndiaTomorrow.net.
Meanwhile Dimapur SP MerenJamir said that the accused, Khan, was tied up by the waist and dragged for seven kilometers, being kicked and pelted with stones along the way. By the end, he succumbed to his injuries.
A number of questions have been raised over the events leading to the lynching. These include questions over the unavailability of a medical report to confirm the rape of the Naga woman, for which Khan had been charged. Other questions surround to the Nagaland police that why police had initially claimed that Khan was an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant.
